Formulation and Antimicrobial Screening of Piper sarmentosum Cream against Staphylococcus aureus

Piper sarmentosum, known as ‘kaduk’ has been traditionally used in different parts of the world to cure many diseases and ailments. It contains alkaloids and has been reported to possess many pharmacological properties like anti-cancer, anti-hyperglycaemic, anti-tuberculosis, antioxidant, and antimalarial. This study aimed to evaluate the formulation of P. sarmentosum cream and exploring the antimicrobial properties in different types of cream formulation before in vivo study. The leaves extract of P. sarmentosum was obtained from the cold-soaked methanolic extraction method, evaporated, and dried to produce the powdered extract. Then, it was diluted into four different concentrations, 25% w/v, 50% w/v, 75% w/v, and 100% w/v for Staphylococcus aureus antimicrobial screening. Based on the S. aureus antimicrobial screening, four types of creams were formulated (Cream A: cream base without Piper sarmentosum extract; Cream B: Piper sarmentosum extract (5%) only; Cream C: Piper sarmentosum extract (5%) with parabens preservatives; Cream D: Piper sarmentosum extract (5%) with vitamin E) and evaluated for their physical appearance, pH, stability study, and antimicrobial activity against S. aureus. As a result, 100% w/v concentration of the P. sarmentosum extract showed the highest result in the zone of inhibition (5.50 mm ± 0.03) towards S. aureus and was selected for cream formulation. In evaluating their physical appearance, all formulated creams showed high homogeneity and consistency with no phase separation and pH between 7.2 – 8.0 ± 0.07. On stability study, all creams with three different temperatures of 4°C, 27°C, and 37°C for 30 days show no colour changes, high homogeneity, and consistency with any phase separation. The results of antimicrobial screening for all formulated creams, show that Cream D has the highest zone of inhibition towards S. aureus (5.53 mm ± 0.25), followed by Cream C (4.43 mm ± 0.13). In conclusion, P. sarmentosum cream formulation showed high stability properties and possessed anti-microbial properties suggesting its potentials for wound healing cream.

El Castell Vell de Castelló o el paradigma de la ocupación antrópica del territorio de La Plana hasta el siglo XIII

The Castelló’s old castle (Castell Vell), or the paradigm of the anthropic territory’s occupation in La Plana until the thirteenth centuryThe Castell Vell of Castelló (Castelló’s Old Castle) is an andalusian structure located at the top on a hill, placed on northern region of La Plana, in the land of Castellón. It’s organized on three interconnected platforms, as many andalusians castles: alcazaba, albacara and the village itself. With 1,1 hectares surface, it follows the pattern of “castle associated with a rural habitat” according the Bazzana’s classification. Its conservation status advises a series of interventions, the last one dated in 2018. Defensive structures have, in general, a high homogeneity in terms of construction techniques, but different moments and build phases can be identified. Its configuration is not uncommon in the almohad military structures of the Iberian land that can be dated between the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries. The presentation at this congress of this heritage piece and the description of the last intervention made is the objective of this study.

Classifications of good versus poor outcome following knee arthroplasty should not be defined using arbitrary criteria

A recently published paper by te Molder and colleagues in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders confirmed prior reports indicating that definitions of good versus poor outcome cutoff scores for relevant knee arthroplasty outcomes including pain and function are heterogeneous and that this heterogeneity prevents generalizable inferences. In this Correspondence, we highlight an additional and, in our view, a more important problem with the substantial literature on this topic. There also is high homogeneity in that all studies relied on arbitrarily defined cutoff scores to differentiate good versus poor outcome. We discuss this problem and propose a method to avoid repeating the same problem in future studies designed to group patients into those with good versus those with poor outcome following knee arthroplasty.

Pseudechiniscus in Japan: re-description of Pseudechiniscus asper Abe et al., 1998 and description of Pseudechiniscus shintai sp. nov.

The classification and identification of species within the genus Pseudechiniscus Thulin, 1911 has been considered almost a Sisyphean work due to an extremely high homogeneity of its members. Only recently have several contributions made progress in the taxonomy feasible through their detailed analyses of morphology and, crucially, by the re-description of the ancient, nominal species P. suillus (Ehrenberg, 1853). Herein, we focus on the Japanese representatives of this genus: P. asper, a rare species originally described from Hokkaido, and a new species P. shintai. Both taxa belong to the widespread suillus-facettalis complex. Detailed descriptions entailing DNA barcoding of four markers and illustrations of the ventral pillar patterns are indispensable for an accurate delineation of species within this genus.